What Does Deuteronomy 2:27 Mean in the King James?
Let me pass through thy land: I will go along by the high way, I will neither turn unto the right hand nor to the left.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The request is for a crossing, not a claim: the Hebrew verb behind “pass through” means to cross over, and the king’s road gives that crossing a trodden course.
THE MEANING
You are moving through land named as another’s, and your request is bounded: one road, no turn to either side. The verse holds passage apart from possession; the traveler crosses without claiming the territory around the way. It distinguishes moving through from taking over.
THE ROOT
אֶעְבְּרָה
ʾeʿĕḇərāh
GROWS FROM
עבר
To cross over, pass through, or go beyond.
“pass through” in this verse is ʾeʿĕḇərāh. The verb carries the concrete motion of crossing a boundary. Here the crossing is passage across another’s land, not a claim to settle or possess it.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāvar: To pass over or cross.
עָבַר
The root’s basic motion makes “pass through” a crossing with a boundary on either side.
maʿavār: A passage or crossing.
מַעֲבָר
This noun from the same root names the crossing as a route through, matching the verse’s bounded request.
דֶּרֶךְ
derekh
GROWS FROM
דרך
To tread, step, or march.
“high way” in this verse is derekh. The road is called derekh, from the root for treading: a way is a course made and known by movement. The traveler follows that trodden line instead of ranging into the land on either side.
ALSO GROWS
dārakh: To tread, step, or march.
דָּרַךְ
The verb makes the road’s physical ground visible: it is a way traversed by feet.
derekh: A road, way, or manner of going.
דֶּרֶךְ
The same word names both the road and a way of proceeding, joining physical passage to its chosen course.
THE PATTERN
A journey becomes bounded passage when its route is named and its edges are not treated as alternate paths.
And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night:And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.THE THREAD
And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of my master Abraham, who hath not left destitute my master of his mercy and his truth: I being in the way, the LORD led me to the house of my master’s brethren.The same Hebrew word, דֶּרֶךְ (derekh, way), names the road here and “the way” there; in both verses, it is a course the traveler is actually moving along. Deuteronomy shows passage bounded by another’s land and by no side-turns, while Genesis shows that the traveled way can also be where guidance meets the traveler.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us